Surprise Victory for Right to Repair in New York

While industry lobbyists were again celebrating a last minute defeat of an important right to repair bill in California. New York lawmaker's gut punched them by passing New York's Digital Fair Repair Act by a whopping 145-1. The bill now waits on the desk of Governor Kathy Hochul.

This important bill would be the first of it's kind to ensure portions of electronic devices remain repairable amid a surging inclination from manufacturers to render their "fondle slabs" into "black boxes". More importantly, it requires manufacturers to document and manufacture parts for their devices. This helps consumers with the know-how repair their own devices, which leads to a huge reduction in electronic gadget waste. As well, it keeps third-party repair shops in business, which as been a long standing industry of talented hackers and other tinkerers.

For the mainstream, it means fixing your broken devices should be faster and cheaper. Not to mention remaining an option all together, even after the manufacturer has abandoned the product (generally within a 18-24 months of rolling them off the line.

Industries have been cracking down on repair shops across the board. Even your general maintenance car mechanics have sought out manufacturers and secured agreements as industries favor locking consumers out of maintaining their own property. It's pretty absurd to me, being an advocate for free and open source software, that anyone would prevent a user from peeking inside and seeing how everything worked, in an effort to either fix or improve any issues they may encounter.

We need these laws more than ever.